What Trump is demanding is that the referees call the game in the middle of the fourth quarter; we disagree and think the teams should play until the delegates vote and the clock runs out at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

On the day of Donald Trump's huge home-state win, and on the eve of the final Republican National Committee meeting before the GOP convention, an influential group of conservative leaders, including CHQ Chairman Richard A. Viguerie, sent a letter RNC Chairman Reince Priebus warning against a rigged convention or the nomination of a "parachute candidate."

The Republican National Committee is expected to debate a proposal next week that would dramatically shift the balance of power at this summer’s convention. The proposal, which will top the agenda during a meeting of the Rules panel at the RNC’s annual spring meeting in Hollywood Beach, Fla., would fundamentally alter how the convention is conducted, further empowering the delegates to determine the course of the proceedings.

We believe, as do Rush Limbaugh and many other conservative commentators, that while the Colorado rules may have been convoluted, Trump wasn’t cheated – the establishment always makes the rules and Trump just plain got out-hustled because he and his people didn’t understand them, and the Cruz team did.

All Trump and Cruz need do is instruct their delegates to vote to retain Rule 40 from the 2012 convention. Rule 40 declares that no candidate can be placed in nomination who has failed to win a majority of the delegates in eight states. Trump has already hit that mark. Cruz almost surely will. But no establishment favorite has a chance of reaching it.